We Are … Panicking!

BY: KALE SPENCER / STAFF WRITER

Penn State fires head coach James Franklin after 12 seasons (Photo via ESPN)

What is going on at Beaver Stadium?! After losing three straight games to highly ranked Oregon, UCLA, and now Northwestern, James Franklin is out as head coach. The Nittany Lions now face the process of replacing the winningest coach in program history. 

Ranked at number 2 in the preseason AP poll, Penn State retained a majority of the roster that competed in last year's semi-final nail-biter loss to Notre Dame in the CFB. Fast forward to today, they now sit at a disappointing 3-3 record and are outside the Week 7 top-25 AP poll. With no real path to the postseason, it would take a miracle to see them in the College Football Playoffs in December. 

Losing to a strong Oregon team—widely expected to advance deep into the College Football Playoffs—wasn’t all that surprising, especially after an intense, closely contested game decided in the final moments. However, alarm bells began to ring following a second straight defeat: this time to a winless UCLA squad that had just fired its own head coach and looked thoroughly uninspired.

Following their losses to Oregon and UCLA, the Nittany Lions had the ultimate shot at redemption – a home game against the unranked Northwestern Wildcats. Despite being the favorite by a wide margin, the Nittany Lions not only lost the game, but also lost their starting quarterback, Drew Allar.

In Franklin’s 11 and a half seasons with Penn State Football, he racked up 104 wins while only tallying 45 losses, having six 10+ win seasons and only one losing season in 2020. 

It has seemed that this program has reached the top of the mountains many times in the past years, yet failed to get over it, constantly getting to a place where they could push through and never getting to fully succeed, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of fans, students, and media members by the end of the season.

Success has not always been tied to the Penn State football team in the past decade. In games against top-25 ranked opponents, his record stood at an abysmal 15-30, and even worse when it comes to top-10 ranked opponents at 4-21. The stereotype that a James Franklin led Nittany Lions team can “never” win big games has proven itself over and over again throughout the seasons he has commanded this team.

In Big Ten rivalry games against teams like Michigan and Ohio State, the last time Penn State walked away victorious against those two was in 2020 and 2016, respectively. Disappointment after disappointment, the failures have led to the decision of Pat Kraft to fire Franklin. While Franklin’s future is unknown4, schools such as Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and Virginia Tech have all recently fired their head coaches—so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him take the reins of another program as early as next spring.

As Franklin’s buyout makes it the biggest college football buyout since Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher in November of 2023, it is estimated at nearly 50 million dollars. As of now, Penn State will be led by interim head coach Terry Smith, who has vocalized his feelings about the struggle happening at Penn State.

Guilt has been a theme since the firing of the team, which has felt the impact, and Smith said, “We all failed Coach Franklin. That’s why he’s not here.” Hoping that this team can respond in a positive manner and play for something bigger than themselves. The recent shortcoming brings an opportunity for a response against top teams like number 1-ranked Ohio State and number 3-ranked Indiana, whom they will face in the back half of their season.

Although the midseason hurdle, we will continue to watch developing news about both Penn State football and James Franklin as they part ways.